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In the City of Ferara, 'tis reported, there some time since liv'd two Damsels who were of reputable Descent, and their Education was equal to that of the greatest Quality in the Territories of Italy; the Name of one of them was Theodora, and of the other Amaryllis: Theodora was the Daughter of an eminent Courtier, and in her Person most beautiful; her Shape was form'd according to the nicest Rules of Symetry; her Waste was slender, her Breasts were full and round, and for Whiteness equall'd the falling Snow; her Face was exactly compos'd, the Features strong and yet beautiful; her Cheeks more lively than the Rose and Lilly; her Eyes sparkled beyond the most shining Planets; her Teeth excell'd the best polish'd Ivory; soft as Velvet were her Lips, and redder than Vermillion; her Hand and Arm more white than Milk; her Feet small, and her Gate stately, and on her Shoulders were display'd her auborn Tresses, hanging in Ringlets to her Waste; in short, every Part that was visible invited to hidden Charms; her Looks were languishing, and her Eye-Balls large, which, perpetually rowling, cast a thousand Darts at all Beholders.

Nor vainly let our sorrows flow, Nor let the strong emotion rise in vain; But may the land contagion widely spread, Till in its flame the unrelenting heart Of avarice melt in softest sympathy And one bright blaze of universal love In grateful incense rises up to Heaven! Form'd with the same capacity of pain, The same desire of pleasure and of ease, Why feels not man for man!

Homer's invention was more copious, Virgil's more confin'd; so that if Homer had not led the way, it was not in Virgil to have begun heroic poetry; for nothing can be more evident than that the Roman poem is but the second part of the Ilias; a continuation of the same story, and the persons already form'd; the manners of Æneas are those of Hector superadded to those which Homer gave him.

"Yet still the loss of wealth is here supplied By arts, the splendid wrecks of former pride; From them the feeble heart and long fall'n mind An easy compensation seem to find. Here may be seen in bloodless pomp array'd, The pasteboard triumph, and the cavalcade; Processions form'd from piety and love, A mistress or a saint in every grove."

Sometimes by a corruption of Seed, Monstrous Shapes are form'd, which by some is ascrib'd to the bad Influence of the Planets, that were predominant at the time of Conception; and sometimes the straightness of the Womb is attended with many Inconveniencies, for Nature not having sufficient room to frame her Work in, the Child is rumpled up, which occasions some to have hump'd Backs, crooked Arms, and Legs, round Shoulders, Wry Necks, and the like.